However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “The person who performs them will live by them.”
Parallel translations
- WEB The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.”
- KJV And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
- BSB The law, however, is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”
- NKJV Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”
- NLT This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The law operates on doing, not believing, requiring that the one who keeps it live by it. Law and faith are two different principles.
Overview
Paul contrasts the law's principle, 'do this and live,' with the gospel's principle of faith. The law offers life only to those who perfectly perform it, a standard no sinner can reach. Thus law and faith cannot be combined as joint grounds of justification; one must choose grace.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Lev 18:5You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances; which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am Yahweh.
- Rom 10:5–6For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, “The one who does them will live by them.”
- Neh 9:29and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they were arrogant, and didn’t listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances (which if a man does, he shall live in them), turned their backs, stiffened their neck, and would not hear.
- Rom 4:14For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect.
- Luke 10:25–28Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
- Rom 4:16For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
- Ezek 20:11I gave them my statutes, and showed them my ordinances, which if a man does, he shall live in them.
- Rom 4:4–5Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed.
- Ezek 20:13“‘“But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They didn’t walk in my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances, which if a man keeps, he shall live in them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them.
- Rom 11:6And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
- Rom 9:30–32What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;
- Matt 19:17He said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 3:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.